Most wineries arrive at 7500 L by working backward from fruit intake rather than from a catalog. If you crush eight to ten tons of red grapes on a peak day and want the must to finish primary fermentation in one vessel with enough freeboard for a rising cap, this is roughly where you land. We size the tank around that reality, not the other way around.

Materials and fabrication

Standard shells are SUS304, 3 mm on the inner body, with a 2B exterior finish and either 2B or mirror-polished interior depending on how the fruit is handled. High-acid must, extended maceration, or a tank that will also see MLF and long lees contact usually justifies 316L. Shells are TIG welded with argon backing, welds ground flush and passivated, then the whole vessel is pressure-tested before the jacket is closed up. Insulation runs 80–100 mm of rock wool or PU foam under a stainless cladding so the glycol system is not fighting ambient heat in an unshaded cellar.

Cooling and must contact

The dimple jacket wraps the cylindrical shell and, on request, the lower cone. Glycol at 3–5 °C enters through DN50 flanged ports and leaves 8–10 °C warmer; that spread tells you whether the surface area is doing its job. In practice the jacket should pull a 28 °C must down to 22 °C in a few hours, not overnight, because red fermentation generates heat fast at the peak of the curve. A hinged manway, a slotted screen or punch-down hatch, and a racking port above the cone seam keep cap work and draining practical without climbing the tank.

Where these tanks fit

Boutique wineries running single-varietal lots, custom crush facilities that need flexible vessel sizes, and producers adding a dedicated reserve tank all use this volume. Fermenters doing double duty as storage need a slightly different port layout than ones dedicated to primary.

Common questions

Does it need a conical bottom? A shallow cone helps with lees separation and draining. Full cone geometry matters more on beer and cider tanks than on red wine fermenters.

How is CIP handled? A rotating spray ball on the top manway, sized to your pump pressure, covers the shell. Racking arms and valve bodies still need manual attention.

What about the safety valve? Any tank run under pressure during transfer or inert gas blanketing needs a correctly rated relief valve and a pressure gauge on the headspace.

Send us your batch size, variety, fermentation temperature target, and cellar footprint. We can confirm jacket area, port positions, and whether 304 or 316L makes more sense for your fruit.